A Picture is Worth… – Memory Maker at Walt Disney World

Walt Disney World is an Instagramer’s dream. From selfies at the famous Purple Wall to the magical character encounters, everywhere you turn is an opportunity to capture an Instagram worthy picture. Grab that FuelRod, you’ll need it! For folks similar to us who always forget to snap that picture, Walt Disney World has a service called Memory Maker – to capture those magical moments. Should everyone add Memory Maker to their Disney vacation? Let’s chat about it!

PhotoPass Photographer – Disney Parks

Don’t We Make Our Own Memories?

Scattered throughout Walt Disney World are photographers ready to snap those famous Disney pictures. You know the ones. The picture of you in front of the castle or meeting your favorite Disney character for the first time. No need to bust out the tripod and ward off the crowds for the perfect picture. Find the cast member with the brown floppy hat and camera around their neck and ask for a picture. SNAP! You’re done. With a simple scan of your park ticket or MagicBand the picture is added to your MyDisneyExperience account. You’ll have 45 days from when the picture is taken to chose to purchase a physical print. The Disney Memory Maker gives you access to all the photos from your trip for one price (or you can do Memory Maker for 1 day only) where you can edit them and download as many versions and copies as you desire.

Passholder Insight: The Walt Disney World Photographers are super helpful and willing to take pictures with your camera or cell phone as well. Just put on that happy face and they’ll snap away!

It’s Just Posed Pictures, right?

Wrong! It’s so much more! We all could easily capture the posed pictures around Walt Disney World. There’s always that friendly tourist willing to help, and your favorite bloggers make great photographers if you see us out there. At Disney, some of the most magical moments happen when you’re not expecting them. For instance, on the attractions! The majority of the big rides have a place where they take your picture. For us, these are the pictures that we love the most! There’s nothing better than Serena’s picture on Dinosaur and Rock ‘n’ Roller Coaster. Priceless moments!

Disney goes beyond just pictures. The part that got us interested in Memory Maker were the ride videos. On a variety of the attractions Disney takes your ride photo and creates a short video around the picture. The video for Tower of Terror is superb.

Passholder Insight: With certain posed photos they sprinkle a little pixie dust and next thing you know, your photo includes a Disney character. One of our favorites is Remy from Ratatouille. You can see it here.

Watch Out Serena!

I’m Torn. Should I Add It?

We’ve done Disney both with and without the Memory Maker. The older we get the more we see that value in having it. Whether we’re doing a family vacation or heading down by ourselves for us, it makes sense (and it’s included in our DVC Annual Pass), but we know we’ll never be great at remembering to take a picture. We would recommend figuring out how many pictures you think you’ll purchase and see if Memory Maker would be a better buy for you. Right now based on pricing the breakeven point is about 10 pictures depending on size for your whole trip or 4 for the Memory Maker for an individual day.

Passholder Insight: If Memory Maker is right for you we recommend purchasing it at least 3 days prior to your trip. Walt Disney World offers a discount if you buy ahead of time.

Passholder Insight: If you would like individual prints and have Memory Maker check if the chain pharmacy in the area can do digital prints for you, or any one of the new online digital print outlets.

The best part of every Walt Disney World trip are the magical moments. Whether you capture them with your camera or through Disney the pictures will always be a great reminder of your trip. They are especially fun at family gatherings, we laugh every time we see our ride photos! Who knows, maybe we’ll make a family edition of Disney “What Would You Meme”!